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Crash And Burn: Unrated
R1 - America - Genius Products Review written by and copyright: Andreas Petersen (10th May 2008). |
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The Film
 For some reason, I really like movies about cars. This is interesting because I’m the sort of person who really knows nothing about them. I don’t models, years, hell, I’m not even sure if I could tell you how a car works exactly. For some reason though, when people talk about cars as though they were life itself in a movie, I tend to like it. Movies like "Two-Lane Blacktop" (1971) and "Vanishing Point" (1971) come to mind, in which the characters live and breathe automobiles. Enter "Crash and Burn", a direct-to-video car-chase movie directed by Russell Mulcahy. I’m happy to say that I’ve found another movie to add to my car-chase library. "Crash and Burn" tells the story of Kevin Hawkins (Erik Palladino), an ex-thug turned undercover FBI agent infiltrating a massive auto theft ring, run by Vincent (Michael Madsen). He meets up with a childhood friend (David Moscow), and begins to steal cars using some high-tech gizmos. Along the line, the two get involved in a gang war, and learn some disturbing truths about Vincent. The story to "Crash and Burn" may not be its strongest point. The real strength to the film doesn’t even lie exclusively with the car chases. Really, I loved the dialogue of the film. Written by Frank Hannah and Jack LoGiudice, the film really sports some entertaining banter between all the characters of the film. I completely bought into the relationship between Kevin and Hill, believing that they have indeed been friends for many years. Most of the conversations in the film are clever and, to a degree, somewhat campy, and I don’t mean in a bad way. Also, the dialogue is properly accentuated by truly above average acting for a strait-to-video film. Palladino pulls off some pretty subtly acting choices that I really appreciated, and Madsen is just great in anything already. Another strong point to the film is the action. The film opens up with a pretty cool car chase sequence, setting up the tone for the rest of the film’s action segments. Not only are there thrilling car chases, but at times the violence can be a little twisted, garnering justification for the film’s “UNRATED” status. If I had to complain about one thing concerning the film, it would be the character Penny (Heather Marie Marsden). The film sets up a back story between Kevin and Penny, hinting that they had a past love life together. Penny was incredibly underdeveloped, and Marsden was certainly the weakest actor of the film. Every scene between Kevin and Penny felt forced and synthetic, and felt completely out of place juxtaposed with the clever and snappy dialogue between the other characters. This character is really the only strait-to-video quality of the film. My gripes are minor, but in the end, I really enjoyed this movie, and not even in a typical strait-to-video-this-is-so-bad-it’s-good way, but I legitimately thought this was a decent movie. It’s good to know that the strait-to-video marked has something to offer besides trash and hilariously bad trash.
Video
The film is offered in a 1.78:1 widescreen anamorphic transfer. The video quality is decent enough. While the film itself look good, I was never really wowed by what I was watching. I have the feeling that the “look” of the movie wasn’t in high priority while it was being filmed. It would have been cool if the movie could have effectively used color to capture the feeling of robbing cars, though I’m not sure at all how one may accomplish that. Overall, I thought the movie looked fine.
Audio
The films is delivered in an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track. All the sounds came through clear enough, but I just have to say I wish this movie could have gotten a 5.1 treatment. I feel as though this would have enhanced the car chases and gun battles to a whole new level, making the movie that much better. I have to say though, it sounded great for a 2.0 track. There are no optional subtitles on this disc.
Extras
None, save for two bonus trailers, and they are for "Sharpshooter", which runs for 1 minute and 45 seconds, and "Finish Line", running for 1 minute and 35 seconds.
Overall
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